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kaazi's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
novabird's review against another edition
4.0
What I experienced while reading The Big Sleep was a sense of nostalgia and a sense of appreciation for how far exactly we have come in gender relations – “You've come a long way, baby.” (from the Virginia Slims cigarette campaign)
Who knew that reading noir could be a ’comfort’ read? Before colorization of movies, before cable, before video rentals or downstream of movies, I read books and watched black and white television. Those early days when I watched movies like: Key Largo, Night of the Hunter and Casablanca while during the same timeframe I had outgrown Cherry Ames, Sue Barton and Nancy Drew, books and was peeking into The Hardy Boys, I became bored and started dipping into my father’s bookshelves for full-grown male spy characters: The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, Where Eagles Dare, and The Odessa File etc.
But it was that buffer zone between childhood and adolescence, that I remembered when I read The Big Sleep; that fuzzy feeling where I still believed in the goodness of the world, the sound of my cat purring and the smell and taste of freshly baked, home-made cinnamon rolls that I had made. Maybe it was because I heard a certain prominent male actor HB, doing an internal voice-over for me, yet I still think it has more to do with the time anchoring of my first exposure to that time period; when things were still black and white in my mind’s eye, and I was a lot less aware of all the gray shades, hues and tints.
Who knew that reading noir could be a ’comfort’ read? Before colorization of movies, before cable, before video rentals or downstream of movies, I read books and watched black and white television. Those early days when I watched movies like: Key Largo, Night of the Hunter and Casablanca while during the same timeframe I had outgrown Cherry Ames, Sue Barton and Nancy Drew, books and was peeking into The Hardy Boys, I became bored and started dipping into my father’s bookshelves for full-grown male spy characters: The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, Where Eagles Dare, and The Odessa File etc.
But it was that buffer zone between childhood and adolescence, that I remembered when I read The Big Sleep; that fuzzy feeling where I still believed in the goodness of the world, the sound of my cat purring and the smell and taste of freshly baked, home-made cinnamon rolls that I had made. Maybe it was because I heard a certain prominent male actor HB, doing an internal voice-over for me, yet I still think it has more to do with the time anchoring of my first exposure to that time period; when things were still black and white in my mind’s eye, and I was a lot less aware of all the gray shades, hues and tints.
jess_mango's review against another edition
3.0
Finally got around to reading this noir classic that has been sitting on my shelf. It was pretty much what I expected...Depression Era L.A., bootleggers, porn scandal, twists, turns, brooding. Phillip Marlowe is most definitely a man's man...which I suppose is to be expected from the era it was written in AND the era it depicts. I can appreciate Chandler's turns of phrase and I will be picking up the follow up which is sitting on my shelf waiting.
8797999's review against another edition
4.0
I had been curious about this book and thought it was a good read, a very enjoyable plot with good twists and charcaters. The characters and dialogue is somewhat dated but it is a book of it's time and unlike some I am not easily offended.
A good read and opener to a well regarded series. I have the rest of the books and look forward to reading them in the near future.
A good read and opener to a well regarded series. I have the rest of the books and look forward to reading them in the near future.
newdaffy's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
rodney1946's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
4.5
In The Big Sleep, Chandler introduced the world to Philip Marlowe, the hard-boiled, incorruptible private detective who would feature in a series of novels and stories. What chance did anyone have? It was as if Rembrandt had inked comic books, or Rodin had sculpted sex dolls: Chandler, a writer who could somehow dazzle while describing a bougainvillea in a Los Angeles streetscape, placed an impossible-to-dislike protagonist in intricate plots with drawn-out mysteries, surprise twists, seductive dames, and enough corpses to keep the mortician’s wife in mink. The voice that croaks to life in The Big Sleep would be imitated many times over, but this was the book that first exposed readers to that combination of cynicism and wit. With time and a big-enough magnifying glass, you might spot an inconsequential loose end, but no matter. Chandler would be worth reading even if the plots were nonsense—for mood, for character, for sentence-by-sentence quality, and, most of all, for the lines. Here’s one to whet your appetite: “Dead men are heavier than broken hearts.”
--------Conor Friedersdorf
The Atlantic's Great American Novels (March 14 2024)
sanj27's review against another edition
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
gjmaupin's review against another edition
dark
funny
informative
mysterious
medium-paced
5.0
You know whether or not you enjoy Chandler but these annotations are exactly the kind of thing I love.
leela_wij's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
cherrie_bluhd's review against another edition
3.0
Entertaining and compelling. The sheer density of phrases in the book was astounding. Really communicated a tone, and an ambiance -- everyone in chaos, everyone corrupt, everyone witty as fuck, battling against each other to see who can have the flashiest intellect. Of course, it's treatment of women feels chaotic, derisive, overly sexual, and wholly dismissive. At the same time, the power (?) of a woman fucking up everything under everyone's noses is kind of enticing. Some plot holes and drawn-out conflicts kind of lost me at times. I wish, like in other detective novels, I could have found clues that led me to the killer in the text, but there wasn't much there. Overall an engaging read from a witty, dense, observant writer.